bpo-8538: Add support for boolean actions to argparse (GH-11478)

Co-Authored-By: remilapeyre <remi.lapeyre@henki.fr>

Doc/library/argparse.rst

@@ -839,9 +839,19 @@ how the command-line arguments should be handled. The supplied actions are:
     Namespace(foo=['f1', 'f2', 'f3', 'f4'])
 
 You may also specify an arbitrary action by passing an Action subclass or
-other object that implements the same interface.  The recommended way to do
-this is to extend :class:`Action`, overriding the ``__call__`` method
-and optionally the ``__init__`` method.
+other object that implements the same interface. The ``BooleanOptionalAction``
+is available in ``argparse`` and adds support for boolean actions such as
+``--foo`` and ``--no-foo``::
+
+    >>> import argparse
+    >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
+    >>> parser.add_argument('--foo', action=argparse.BooleanOptionalAction)
+    >>> parser.parse_args(['--no-foo'])
+    Namespace(foo=False)
+
+The recommended way to create a custom action is to extend :class:`Action`,
+overriding the ``__call__`` method and optionally the ``__init__`` and
+``format_usage`` methods.
 
 An example of a custom action::
 
@@ -1361,6 +1371,9 @@ Action instances should be callable, so subclasses must override the
 The ``__call__`` method may perform arbitrary actions, but will typically set
 attributes on the ``namespace`` based on ``dest`` and ``values``.
 
+Action subclasses can define a ``format_usage`` method that takes no argument
+and return a string which will be used when printing the usage of the program.
+If such method is not provided, a sensible default will be used.
 
 The parse_args() method
 -----------------------

Lib/argparse.py

@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@ __all__ = [
     'ArgumentParser',
     'ArgumentError',
     'ArgumentTypeError',
+    'BooleanOptionalAction',
     'FileType',
     'HelpFormatter',
     'ArgumentDefaultsHelpFormatter',
@@ -454,7 +455,7 @@ class HelpFormatter(object):
                 # if the Optional doesn't take a value, format is:
                 #    -s or --long
                 if action.nargs == 0:
-                    part = '%s' % option_string
+                    part = action.format_usage()
 
                 # if the Optional takes a value, format is:
                 #    -s ARGS or --long ARGS
@@ -842,9 +843,53 @@ class Action(_AttributeHolder):
         ]
         return [(name, getattr(self, name)) for name in names]
 
+    def format_usage(self):
+        return self.option_strings[0]
+
     def __call__(self, parser, namespace, values, option_string=None):
         raise NotImplementedError(_('.__call__() not defined'))
 
+class BooleanOptionalAction(Action):
+    def __init__(self,
+                 option_strings,
+                 dest,
+                 const=None,
+                 default=None,
+                 type=None,
+                 choices=None,
+                 required=False,
+                 help=None,
+                 metavar=None):
+
+        _option_strings = []
+        for option_string in option_strings:
+            _option_strings.append(option_string)
+
+            if option_string.startswith('--'):
+                option_string = '--no-' + option_string[2:]
+                _option_strings.append(option_string)
+
+        if help is not None and default is not None:
+            help += f" (default: {default})"
+
+        super().__init__(
+            option_strings=_option_strings,
+            dest=dest,
+            nargs=0,
+            default=default,
+            type=type,
+            choices=choices,
+            required=required,
+            help=help,
+            metavar=metavar)
+
+    def __call__(self, parser, namespace, values, option_string=None):
+        if option_string in self.option_strings:
+            setattr(namespace, self.dest, not option_string.startswith('--no-'))
+
+    def format_usage(self):
+        return ' | '.join(self.option_strings)
+
 
 class _StoreAction(Action):
 

Lib/test/test_argparse.py

@@ -686,6 +686,30 @@ class TestOptionalsActionStoreTrue(ParserTestCase):
         ('--apple', NS(apple=True)),
     ]
 
+class TestBooleanOptionalAction(ParserTestCase):
+    """Tests BooleanOptionalAction"""
+
+    argument_signatures = [Sig('--foo', action=argparse.BooleanOptionalAction)]
+    failures = ['--foo bar', '--foo=bar']
+    successes = [
+        ('', NS(foo=None)),
+        ('--foo', NS(foo=True)),
+        ('--no-foo', NS(foo=False)),
+        ('--foo --no-foo', NS(foo=False)),  # useful for aliases
+        ('--no-foo --foo', NS(foo=True)),
+    ]
+
+class TestBooleanOptionalActionRequired(ParserTestCase):
+    """Tests BooleanOptionalAction required"""
+
+    argument_signatures = [
+        Sig('--foo', required=True, action=argparse.BooleanOptionalAction)
+    ]
+    failures = ['']
+    successes = [
+        ('--foo', NS(foo=True)),
+        ('--no-foo', NS(foo=False)),
+    ]
 
 class TestOptionalsActionAppend(ParserTestCase):
     """Tests the append action for an Optional"""
@@ -3456,6 +3480,10 @@ class TestHelpUsage(HelpTestCase):
         Sig('a', help='a'),
         Sig('b', help='b', nargs=2),
         Sig('c', help='c', nargs='?'),
+        Sig('--foo', help='Whether to foo', action=argparse.BooleanOptionalAction),
+        Sig('--bar', help='Whether to bar', default=True,
+                     action=argparse.BooleanOptionalAction),
+        Sig('-f', '--foobar', '--barfoo', action=argparse.BooleanOptionalAction),
     ]
     argument_group_signatures = [
         (Sig('group'), [
@@ -3466,7 +3494,10 @@ class TestHelpUsage(HelpTestCase):
         ])
     ]
     usage = '''\
-        usage: PROG [-h] [-w W [W ...]] [-x [X [X ...]]] [-y [Y]] [-z Z Z Z]
+        usage: PROG [-h] [-w W [W ...]] [-x [X [X ...]]] [--foo | --no-foo]
+                    [--bar | --no-bar]
+                    [-f | --foobar | --no-foobar | --barfoo | --no-barfoo] [-y [Y]]
+                    [-z Z Z Z]
                     a b b [c] [d [d ...]] e [e ...]
         '''
     help = usage + '''\
@@ -3480,6 +3511,9 @@ class TestHelpUsage(HelpTestCase):
           -h, --help            show this help message and exit
           -w W [W ...]          w
           -x [X [X ...]]        x
+          --foo, --no-foo       Whether to foo
+          --bar, --no-bar       Whether to bar (default: True)
+          -f, --foobar, --no-foobar, --barfoo, --no-barfoo
 
         group:
           -y [Y]                y

Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2019-01-09-16-18-52.bpo-8538.PfVZia.rst

+Add support for boolean actions like ``--foo`` and ``--no-foo`` to argparse.
+Patch contributed by Rémi Lapeyre.